Overview

The Film

The Million Moms and the Second Amendment Sisters are two advocacy groups diametrically opposed on gun control, but they agree on one point: mothers will and should have a voice in determining gun control policy in America. Guns & Mothers explores the grassroots beliefs of both movements by focusing on two different women, living in two different Americas.

The film follows their parallel crusades over the course of a year, starting on Mother’s Day 2000 when the two movements came together with the Million Mom March on Washington and the Second Amendment Sisters’s smaller counter-rally that same day. Fueled by the national shock and outrage over the shootings at Columbine High School, the Million Moms were committed to using the wholesome image of mom and apple pie to get Congress to hear their concerns. With inside access to both sides, filmmaker Thom Powers shows how both the Million Moms and the NRA recruited women; how tempers flared around the gun issue; how presidential candidates handled the debate; and how the movements looked a year later.